New kid on the bloc

Last Tuesday and today I had the pleasure to drive the Hyundai Kona Electric for the first time. Although it may not be interesting for the users of this forum in itself, you may be interested in the fact that this is a version of the car produced in the Czech Republic and intended for the European market. Unfortunately, the car is in the lowest configuration for the 204PS / 64kWh engine (which does not mean, however, that it is poorly equipped). If it really is missing something, then maybe only heating steering wheel and seats, Active Cruise Control and the photochromatic rear view mirror. Without a heat pump, LED headlights, a glass sunroof, satellite navigation and electric seat adjustment, one can live, especially if this guy is up to a quarter cheaper than the fully equipped version. BTW – with (included) Android Auto you can comfortably use Google Maps.

While on Tuesday I had to move very carefully, because the car was fitted with the cheapest Chinese winter tires, which I could not trust, today I could add a little more gas after changing the tires to the highly rated Bridgestone Blizzak. And this despite the fact that at night it was snowing a bit and it became winter on the roads. Well - the tires are still not worn out, but I can recommend them now. On wet and slippery surfaces with slush, they perform flawlessly (although I haven't checked hard braking yet). When accelerating, even quite sharp, they can cope despite the difficult surface. And we all know what the Kona electric's 395Nm of torque is capable of.

As for the changes made to the "Czech" version of the car, I noticed the lack of the option to recharge the 12V battery in the system menu. Instead, the computer automatically checks the condition of the battery once in a while and recharges it from the high-voltage battery when necessary. I wonder if this will solve the known problem with the discharge of the 12V battery.

The options also lack a system for generating an artificial engine sound (not that I need it). If I wanted something in return, it would be to adjust the color of the button illumination. Standard blue or violet-blue, if you prefer, although more pleasing to the eye than those in VW products, I don't like it very much.

When it comes to energy consumption, in today's 70 km route, with AC and heating constantly on, it was about 20kWh / 100km. In more favorable weather conditions it would probably be closer to 15. And I wasn't driving too nicely today, the computer indicated that I drove at least 10% of the route "aggressively", which means dynamic overtaking and minor problems with strict adherence to speed limits ;-) BTW, this version of the vehicle also does not have a road sign recognition system, although this option seems to be useful.

If I can drive the Kona electric for longer, I will certainly have further comments and questions.

 

No, it was winter Fortune tires, maybe not so bad for that price, but not for a car with 395Nm of torque. As a factory equipment Hyundai gave Michelin Primacy 4 (summer tires). Winter tires were an obligatory equipment in a tender clause -- but without any additional conditions, so dealer gave the cheapest he found ;-)

 

Unfortunately, this is still the 2020 version, although some believe that 2021 looks worse. I have mixed feelings - the Koreans introduced a few successful corrections, but they also left little things that in my opinion they could improve. It would definitely be worth having a more powerful charger on board as well as a larger multimedia screen, for that matter.
The heat pump sounds good, but I've heard feedback that it doesn't really give much in EV because it only works in a limited temperature range. There was a thread somewhere in which the author described the surprisingly meager results of the analysis of the energy benefits of using the pump, probably in VW ID.3. Nevertheless, I would rather have it, because Hyundai probably did it better than VW ;-)
Indeed, I am from Poland, but our winters have only been mild for a few years, recently there have been forecasts of severe frosts in the second half of January. Certainly, we could use much more snow, because we are suffering from drought, and in our climate the only remedy for it is snow winter.
I do not drive our white Kona permanently yet, but I hope that I will finally start, because it is incomparably better than my already worn-out Astra, and at the same time much cheaper to run.

 

Thanks for the kind words, but white is the only varnish that does not require an additional payment, and my employer did not intend to pay extra for the color. However, in this white Kona looks really nice, as long as it is clean of course Besides, it seems that white is just fashionable recently.

 

To be exact, there are two white colors in the price list for the version produced in the Czech Republic - chalk white and polar white, the former at no extra charge. There is a white one in the Korean production version, chalk white, also at no extra charge. Here you are the link to the offer: https://s7g10.scene7.com/is/content/hyundaiautoever/Cennik_KONA_Electric_PY2020pdf , look at pg 6. What's interesting are the differences in the offered colors in both production versions.

EDITED: Oh, now I read the price list and I can see that I lied - in both versions, white is for an additional fee, and without additional payment - red and gray However, we did not have to pay anything extra for white in our purchase, maybe the dealer treated it as a discount (this was the condition in the tender - color without additional payment). It's a pity, because if I had to personally choose, I would probably try red

2nd EDITED: OK, now I know where my mistake came from - I remembered that in the price list of the weaker version sold with the government bonus there was a batch of cars in white: https://s7g10.scene7.com/is/content/hyundaiautoever/Cennik_KONA_Electric_PY2020_green- carpdf